Winter Olympics snowboard bronze medallist Jenny Jones hopes her success will
encourage more women to take up the sport

Jenny Jones oozes cool. With her uniform of hoodies, trackie bottoms and trendy beanie hats, she’s everything you’d hope for in a chalet-girl-turned-Olympic-champion. She soared her way into the record books (and our hearts) last weekend with a bronze-medal run in the snowboarding slopestyle event – and did so without looking like she’d tried.

Even down a crackly phone line from Team GB’s HQ in Sochi, where everything is “sick”, “mega props” and “gnarly”, I’m not sure I’m hip enough to understand most of what she says.

Winning Britain’s first – and, to date, only – medal at the Winter Olympics is “slowly sinking in” for Jones, 33, from Bristol. “I sleep with it under my pillow,” she laughs. “It’s in a wooden box, which means I need two pillows so it’s not uncomfortable. But it just feels so amazing to think I’ve actually won one.”

Victory has been a long time coming for Jones, who took up snowboarding at the age of 17, after a lesson on a dry slope with her two brothers, Sam and David. She loved it so much that she got a job in a chalet in the Alps, so that she could practise on snow in her spare time. “When we had the lesson, my brothers were better than me,” Jones admits. “I was a bit jealous. I was like, 'Right, I’m not having this.’ Now they enjoy snowboarding for sure – just maybe not as well as their little sister.”

Jones shone at her first big competition in 1999 and her career took off from there. The road to international success, however, wasn’t easy: she had an eclectic series of jobs – from cardboard factory worker to doughnut-seller – to pay her way. “At the beginning it was tough,” she says. “You need to get out in the mountains to have enough time on the snow, and I had to support myself.”

To stay in shape, she has a rigorous fitness regime – plyometrics (specialist jump training), cardio and trampolining – and spends her summers surfing in Cornwall. “That’s purely for fun,” she explains. “I’m a total amateur but I love jumping in the water. You don’t get so many bumps and bruises when you fall off.”

It’s a lot more painful on ice. Jones – who suffered concussion last year – has had her share of injuries. Is it as painful/dangerous as it looks? “Yup,” she says, “but I think when you get into snowboarding, you accept that there is an element of danger and that’s slightly what you like about it. It’s the challenge and the fear. You’ve got so much adrenalin running through your body.”

She hopes her success will inspire women to take up snowboarding – regardless of their age (Jones was at least six years older than the other competitors in her event). “I find it very encouraging having younger boarders around,” she insists. “They inject this kind of youthful enthusiasm in me, and I think it worked in my favour.”

Jones is staying in Russia for another week or two, supporting the rest of Team GB and getting her fill of unusual sports. “I’m going to see the iceskating tonight – all that launching-the-girl-in-the-air stuff,” she enthuses. And she’s enjoying the sun during one of the hottest Winter Olympics on record. “I wouldn’t say I’m getting a massive suntan, but it’s definitely warm.” When she gets back to Bristol, her friends are planning a huge party and she can’t wait to see her parents, Peter and Helen, now back in the UK after surprising her on the podium.

As for the future – will Britain’s snow queen conquer even more of the white stuff? “It’s not something I’ve really thought about,” she says. “I’m just going to soak in this moment.” And so, Jenny Jones, are we.